THE FOBESTS BY REGIONS. 13 



from $2 to $5 per thousand feet. This, however, will doubtless in- 

 crease rapidly. Virgin shortleaf and longleaf pine, mixed with 

 hardwoods in depressions and along the borders of creeks, form 

 extensive forests that have been little exploited. 



Everywhere on cut-over longleaf-pine areas there is an absence 

 of reproduction, due to repeated fires. On the hills, where short- 

 leaf and loblolly pine are mixed with the longleaf, reproduction is 

 abundant and vigorous wherever fires are kept out. On the pine 

 flats reproduction, even under the best conditions, is difficult, and 

 where fires occur is practically impossible. 



Throughout the region, especially in Calcasieu and Yernon 

 Parishes, large numbers of cattle, sheep, and hogs graze in the woods. 

 In the northern part of Calcasieu Parish there is estimated to be 

 100,000 head of sheep grazing on the lands of the large lumber 

 companies. Upon the owners of stock rests the responsibility for 

 most of the fires which burn over the ground each year. The prac- 

 tice of burning over land to increase pasturage is far less common 

 in the northern parishes. 



Within the last four years unprecedented wind storms have been 

 exceedingly destructive to longleaf pine timber. It is estimated 

 that at least 10 per cent of the standing timber in and about Wash- 

 ington and Tangipahoa Parishes has been uprooted since 1906. On 

 certain areas as much as 65 per cent of the virgin timber has been 

 blown down. Each of two companies estimated the amount of its 

 wind-thrown timber at 200,000,000 feet, more than half of which 

 would be a total loss. The first storm occurred in 1906", followed by 

 another in 1908, and by a third, the most disastrous, in 1909. The 

 damage resulted not so much from the violence of the wind as from 

 its duration. Constant pressure against the trees loosened the lateral 

 roots, and in the absence of strong taproots, due to the hard clay 

 subsoil, the trees were overthrown. In the storm of 1909 most of 

 the trees fell during the last part of the blow. Where wind-thrown 

 timber is being logged the increase in cost of getting it out is esti- 

 mated to range from 30 to 50 per cent. Wind-thrown timber during 

 the summer months is immediately attacked by the Southern pine 

 sawyer, which will seriously damage 25 per cent of the lumber in 

 a log if it remains on the ground for any length of time. 1 



ALLUVIAL, REGION. 



The alluvial region comprises nearly half of the State. On the 

 west side of the Mississippi River it extends without interruption 

 from the Arkansas line to the marshes along the Gulf of Mexico in 



1 For description and method of control see Bulletin 58, Part IV, Bureau of Entomology 



